FRANCES NEWTON 1965-2005 Talks from Texas Death-Row -- Texas Death Penalty!

By Gloria Rubac Houston Newton’s parents and sisters witnessed her state murder by lethal injection on Sept. 14. She was the first Black woman legally lynched in Texas since 1853. As over 3000 people protested outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas, the state put Newton to death without ever having heard new evidence gathered in her case and never allowing her a day in court with competent counsel. When Newton’s family walked across the street from the prison administrative building into the death house at 6 p.m., the crowd chanted, “Frances” and then “Innocent!” over and over and over. About 20 minutes later, when her family walked back across the street, the large, militant, multinational crowd screamed, chanted and cried as it became evident that Newton had, in fact, been put to death. “We know that these executions are lynchings—of Blacks, of Latinos, and of working class whites. The arrogance and racism of the government that we saw in New Orleans is the same that we see with the death penalty. They have such contempt for the oppressed. People with money are not lynched. We will use Frances’ innocence as one more reason to demand an end to this terror used by the rich,” said Njeri Shakur, a TDPAM activist. Texas Students Against the Death Penalty